


Love is Blind

by marsisaplanet



Category: Falsettos - Lapine/Finn, IT (Movies - Muschietti)
Genre: Ben is Mendel, Beverly is Trinna, Eddie is Whizzer, F/M, Falsettos References, Georgie is Jason, M/M, Multi, Post-Divorce, Richie is Marvin, Tags will be updated to prevent spoilers!, and Stanlonbrough are the lesbians from next door
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-01-19
Packaged: 2021-02-27 05:27:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,275
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22131763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/marsisaplanet/pseuds/marsisaplanet
Summary: They’re a strange family, but they’re a family altogether. Richie and Beverly, divorced. Georgie, their son. Eddie, Richie’s lover. Ben, Richie’s psychiatrist. The gay polyamorous trio from next door. Life in New York City isn’t always what it seems, and the eight of them could tell you that any day.
Relationships: Ben Hanscom/Beverly Marsh, Bill Denbrough/Mike Hanlon/Stanley Uris, Eddie Kaspbrak/Richie Tozier
Comments: 5
Kudos: 21





	1. Four Jews in a Room Bitching

**Author's Note:**

> Please note that I am not Jewish! I had my friends Emily and Sho (reddie-for-anything/thelazy_eye and studpuffin) help me out! All that I know about Judaism is this show and what they have helped me with. This is not meant to offend anyone, I'm just trying to make you guys cry.

There’s some sort of community about being Jewish. The constant stories, the rituals, the fact that everyone doesn’t really believe in God even though they claim they do.

This was the case with Richie, Georgie, Ben, and Eddie. It seemed that every single time they were in a room with other Jews they were bitching. That was how it went. Constantly bitching, constantly complaining, constantly needing attention. 

Richie was Jewish. He was raised Jewish as well. There was nothing really to it, he didn’t know anything different until he was freed from his household post high school. He became a successful businessman, and yet, he despised his job. When it came to Judaism, he still ate kosher. He wore his yamaka when he went to temple, which was almost never. Then he met Beverly and he went more often. It’s kind of hard not to when your wife is Jewish as well. Well, ex-wife.

Georgie was Jewish. His father was Jewish and his mother was Jewish and though his parents had an almost symbiotic relationship, it didn’t change the fact that he knew he was going to have a bar mitzvah when he turned thirteen. His mother wanted him to go to the Jewish center, he wanted to play chess by himself. Beverly was always concerned, Richie was always her reinforcement.

Ben was Jewish. He didn’t look very stereotypically Jewish with his straight blonde hair and crinkle-cut nose. Still, he had his bar mitzvah and celebrated Passover with his family each year. He went to temple, read his Torah, and from the outside looking in, he was a good Jewish man. But he couldn’t help but feel like he was waiting for a miracle. Being a psychiatrist was a bit fulfilling, but he always felt like something was missing.

Eddie was half-Jewish. That had to count for something, right? His father was Jewish and died when he was young. His mother had always protected him and because of it, he decided he would move from the big city far away from her grasp. He met a boy. Several boys. Many many boys. They would all lead him down a road till he met Richie. That was a whole adventure in itself.

Put the four of them in a room and it was just bitching.

_ Bitching, bitching, bitching, bitching. _

Beverly was fucking tired of it. Slavery she called it, just like the Old Testament. She couldn’t wait to get the fuck out of Egypt and to somewhere better. She was so fucking tired of all of the ladies at Temple too.

“I heard that Brina was in China with a torn meniscus!”

Shut the fuck up Betty. No one cares. 

Her job wasn’t awful and she loved her son, but she didn’t love a lot of things about her ex-husband.

She didn’t love that he had abandoned her and her child, despite the fact that he still wanted to be in their lives. She didn’t love the fact that he had left her for a man or the fact that he was in her apartment just as much as he had been when they were married. 

She didn’t love that he was a gigantic fucking asshole.

They say that if you put those four men in a room they would become four Jews in a room bitching. But they always forgot Beverly. 

Because really, it was five Jews in a room bitching, tired of their lives, and tired of the people around them. There was no fun in their dysfunctional. It was just madness and sadness and a constant web of irony. They were all waiting for a miracle. A tight knit family, sane parents, a fresh start, a home, and someone to love them. There's a lesson from these five people, and one that is very easy to learn. 

Don’t put five Jews in a room, they’ll just bitch. 

  
  
  
  



	2. A Tight Knit Family/Love is Blind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Richie is greedy and Beverly goes to see a psychiatrist.

The situation was this. Richie divorced his wife, left his child, and ran off with a friend. Yet he wanted a tight knit family, a group that sort of harmonizes. He wanted his wife and kid and friend to pretend that time will mend their pain.

So what if it’s 1979 and they don’t go by the book. They’ll dine as one on occasion, Richie whistling in the dining room as Beverly and Eddie cook. He loves his tight knit family, from the way they cook linguine to the way that they melded together. But did they truly meld together? Everyone else seemed to think of it as a facade. 

He was the only one who seemed happy about the arrangement. The only one who thought they were going to survive throughout their struggles, despite the fact that Richie knew that his family would probably fight. They were his tight knit family and he wanted each and every one of them. 

Richie wanted it all. 

*

Beverly walked to Dr. Hanscom’s office. The door was slightly open, but she still felt the need to announce herself by knocking on it. She peeked her head through the door and noticed a man sitting in an armchair, hastily searching for something around him. Beverly knocked on the door again, this time louder. The man’s head shot up instantly.

“Dr. Hanscom?” Beverly asked. The man stood up from his chair and motioned for Beverly to come inside.

“Please,” he said. “Call me Ben. Would you like some tea?”

“That would be very nice, thank you,” Beverly said as she looked around the office. She had never been before, though Richie had talked about his visits with Dr. Hanscom on occasion. 

It wasn’t too large, but it wasn’t too small. There was an area with toys for younger clients and a real wood fireplace towards one end of the room that crackled loudly. There were two large windows, but the blinds were closed and large burgundy curtains were drawn in front of them. Ben walked towards Beverly with a box full of a variety of different types of tea and a cup of hot water. He set both down on a coffee table between the armchair he had been sitting at earlier and another one.

“Sit down my dear,” he said with a smile. “I hear you have a problem. Take a load off your feet.”

“Thank you,” she said, the words coming out of her like a sagging accordion. Beverly gingerly sat down and placed a teabag in her cup to steep. Ben got situated opposite from her.

“Happy or sad?” he asked.

“Well I-” 

“Eh!” Ben interrupted, with a shaky laugh. “That’s a question with no answer.” Beverly nodded in agreement, but continued to stare into her teacup.

“Let’s not discuss the weather, let’s face the facts,” Ben said gently. “From what Richie has told me, you need to relax.” 

Beverly sighed before finally looking at Ben. He nodded encouragingly and before she even noticed, words started flowing out of her.

“Love isn’t sex,” Beverly said with a shake of her head and a humorless laugh. “That’s something my husband once told me. Richie, my ex,” she looked quickly over at Ben as she massaged her temple. “You’ve seen him for years. He told me over the phone to tell you all of my fears and doubts and anxieties.” Beverly closed her eyes before taking another sip of her tea.

“Do you only treat queers?” she asked, weakly. Ben let out a small laugh.

“No,” he said with a non-judgemental smile. His smile faltered slightly when he saw Beverly staring at her teacup again. He gently placed a hand on top of her free one.

“Take a deep breath,” he said, once again gently. “I swear I’m understanding. Your pain, is a priority. I know I see Richie too,” Beverly nodded, looking up at him again. “But please, tell me your untold story.” 

Beverly took in another deep breath. Was therapy supposed to be this stressful? She knew it was her reacting and causing it to seem more intense than the situation actually was. After all, Ben was trying to be very helpful. Yet, she couldn’t help feeling a bit sheltered. 

“I’m everything he wanted,” she said through a dry, humorless laugh. “I suppose I should have put it altogether, yet we married.” She took another sip of her tea, shaking her head yet again as she gazed up at the ceiling before she began to speak again.

“Then Richie came from work, sat me down on the bed. He told me how he loved me, needed, maybe valued me,” Beverly said in one breath before releasing it to say the next sentence. “-And then he explained to me that he had syphilis.” Ben nodded. Richie had told him this story.

“He told me that he had it after we were married,” Beverly said. “So that obviously meant something. But then he said I might have it too. God and that’s just one of the things,” her heart clenched as she set her cup down. 

“You’re still lovely,” Ben said.

“I’m so easily appeased,” Beverly said with a shake of her head. “He told me he had hepatitis too. Later I stayed home from work after taking the STD test. I don’t have either, fortunately.”

Ben nodded. He was used to listening, it was his job, and it didn’t seem like his turn to interject just yet.

“I took care of them, just like any other day. They acted like their normal selves, Richie was immature, Georgie was too smart for his age,” Beverly sighed and rubbed her eyes. “Georgie called him a prick and said he wasn’t his. Whatever that means. If anything Richie isn’t mine.”

“Richie tried to make it up of course. He gave me flowers and little daily cards. Stupid shit that said ‘Will You Be My Valentine?’ God, it’s hard to believe that I went along with the act. Ignored it. Acted blind. I didn’t fall for what he said, but I pretended to be happy. We pretended to make up.” Beverly scratched at one of her wrists with her fingernails. “Sometimes I feel as though I have a scalpel up my sleeve.”

“You don’t actually mean that,” Ben said quickly. “Do you?”

“I would never,” Beverly said with a shake of her head and a pitiful smile. “Everyday I missed him but he was still missing. Some days I wanted to look at Georgie and tell him that his daddy was kissing boys. That would be petty of me though.”

“I loved him,” she said. “I loved him a lot. I suppose he loved me to an extent.” Beverly looked at Ben, his kind eyes locking with hers. “He loves Georgie though, and that’s what matters. That Georgie has him in his life.” Ben finally began to truly speak.

“Love is blind,” he said. “Love can tell a million stories. It’s unkind and spiteful in a million ways. Those are factors of this wonderful thing that we have to remember. It’s something that blindsides us. One might say that love is crazy,” he continued. “Or that it’s often boring or that love stinks or that it’s debris or that it’s any other number of things.”

Beverly nodded as Ben spoke all of this. She knew those thoughts very well. She’d experienced them with her ex-husband. 

“What if I find what I found and then never ever do it again?” she asked. “Would that change things? Would that make things better? Would it do anything?”

“You wouldn’t have to repeat the same experience,” Ben said. “There are different people. Different personalities.”

“Love reads like a bad biography,” Beverly said, looking up at Ben. “All the names are changed to protect the innocent. To make those who have done nothing and are just on the sidelines feel safe. Protected. Undisturbed.”

“But you aren’t on the sideline Beverly,” Ben said. “You’re one of the main characters.” 

Time passed by quickly in the office. Before either of them knew it, Beverly had to walk out the door and pick up Georgie from school. Ben saw her out and genuinely hoped that he had made some sort of impact. He couldn’t always tell with his clients.

“Come again next Friday,” Ben said as he stood by his office door. Beverly nodded and began to walk away. “I have to admit,” Beverly turned to look at Ben. “I admire you. You’re fierce and brave and dedicated. You’ll be okay Beverly,” he finished, with a small smile and a curt nod.

“Thank you,” Beverly said. Those words meant more to her than she thought they would. It’s shocking how little things like that could affect your day. She gave a quick wave and continued down the hallway to the elevator.

Ben sat back down in his armchair. He didn’t have another client for awhile. It was nice to have a break between sessions. Each client was different and had different issues, some more difficult than others. He had never married. Work is his passion, many might say that statement was his alibi. He never particularly cared to discuss it. Ben was the therapist, he had to help others. He wasn’t supposed to get help. He wasn’t supposed to need it. 

Beverly was insecure, that was plain for Ben to see. Then again, who wasn’t insecure? From the constant need to look at something to the way she played with the sweater she was wearing, it was clear that Beverly was not used to sharing. He hoped that someday she would be.

Just five sessions in his office and she’d be good as new. But one can only hope so much. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> And away we go! I'm going to try and update every other Sunday, so stay tuned for that. Chapters will vary in length! Each song off the soundtrack is one chapter so there should be about 34 total. Some of them will be super long (Marvin at the Psychiatrist: A Three Part Mini Opera) and very short (Four Jews in a Room Bitching). Please keep this in mind as updates come along! Finally, the dialogue and writing in this is going to be VERY similar to the show's lyrics. I was talking to my friend Sam about this fic and I said "I feel like a fanfic transcriber". Please just remember this as the fic progresses!
> 
> Find me on Tumblr: @marsisaplanetyall


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